Mark Me Up
by TheSilverArgents
Summary: "Your brother was defending Clara's honor and virtue."


"What time is it?" Clara asked not moving her head from Davey's chest. He leaned over to the grab his watch, careful not to disturb her. When he saw the time he bit his lip knowing she wouldn't like the answer. She looked up at him and he showed her the watch carefully. Her eyes widened, "8:32; I'm so late!" She grabbed one of the sheets and wrapped herself in it as she got up and began picking up clothes off the floor. Davey followed her lead, wrapping the sheet around his waist instead. He turned around to grab his tie (which had ended up on a lamp) when he heard Clara gasp.

"Oh my god, I _destroyed_ you." She said, one of her hands covering her mouth in horror.

He raised an eyebrow quizzically at her and she rolled her eyes at him and grabbed his hand, leading him into their bathroom. She turned him so that his back was facing the mirror and he was staring at the wall. "Move the mirror around until you see your back."

Davey tilted the mirror up and down for a second until he finally caught sight of his back which was covered in long light red scratches that seemed to run the length of his entire back. He raised an eyebrow and turned to the larger mirror. The scratches started somewhere around the middle of his shoulders and could easily be covered by a long shirt, unlike the hickeys on his neck. He brought a finger to them gingerly and Clara sighed, "I'm the worst, I'm sorry."

He snorted out a laugh, "_Trust_ me, you're far from the worst." Clara giggled and let her blonde hair cover her face. She kissed his shoulder and lingered there, "We're going to be late."

Davey sighed and then remembered the day, brightening a little. "We're all having a lunch meeting at Jacobi's today, you'll be there?"

"Of course I will. I'll meet you there." Clara called over her shoulder as she walked out of the bathroom.

….

Every newsie in Manhattan was sitting at (or on, in some cases) the tables in Jacobi's. Jack, Katherine, Crutchie, Les and Davey were at a table all chatting amiably. Occasionally, Les would feel the urge to flick Davey behind the ear and Davey would muss up his hair in return. The bell on the door of the restaurant rung, but hardly anyone noticed because of how loud everyone was talking. Even the table where the aforementioned group was sitting at was struggling to hear one another.

* * *

Clara Jacobs-Wyman walked into Jacobi's and began greeting everyone she knew, kissing the cheeks of some of the newsboys or enveloping them into great big hugs. Katherine was able to shout over the all the noise and waved her over to their table. Clara nodded, planted a kiss on Romeo's cheek, and walked over to sit next to her husband.

"Between the two of you," Crutchie indicated to Clara and Katherine, "You're gonna kill Romeo." Everyone at the table turned to see said newsie stumbling into Elmer with a red face. Clara and Katherine exchanged glances and, in unison, burst into fits of laughter. Les furrowed his eyebrows, he wasn't used to the way Clara and Katherine worked as one sometimes. To busy himself he leaned over and began flicking Davey in the ear again.

Davey decided to ignore it this time, so Les became more persistent. He moved from his ear to his neck, craning over the table a bit more so he could reach. Usually he didn't wind his brother up that much but he loved the way Davey would try to keep his annoyance in check with Clara next to him.

If he had been paying attention, he would have noticed that Jack said he was gonna "say something to all the boys" which was code for "I'm giving a speech". But, of course, Les Jacobs was too involved in his world at the moment and didn't notice that he should have been paying attention. What he did notice were the odd scratches and bruises that seemed to have formed on his brother's neck. The scratches rose up in light red welts and the bruises were a shade of purple that showed they were only about a day old.

"Davey what happened to ya?" Les asked, pulling back from his brother.

"What is it, Les?" Davey asked over the noise as Jack stood up on a chair.

"What happened to ya?" he repeated, raising his voice a little, not noticing that the noise level was decreasing.

Davey leaned a bit closer to him, "Say that last bit again, Les?"

Les rolled his eyes and shouted, "Why have ya got a bunch o' bruises on your neck?"

The restaurant was dead silent.

Jack looked inquisitively down at the Jacobs brothers and Clara had actually spit her water out of her mouth. She was currently choking on whatever had been down her throat and Crutchie was pounding her back in assistance.

When people actually registered what Les had said, a couple of wolf whistles started up. Les had the decency to blush a little bit, but was still curious to find out what had happened to his brother.

"Nice one, Davey!" Race shouted from somewhere and the chatter started back up again. Clara moaned miserably to herself, her face becoming redder by the second. She looked up at Katherine who had an eyebrow raised. The two seemed to communicate to each other by just looking at one another and Katherine let out a soft snort and called Jack down (the poor man was staring down from his chair in confusion). She whispered in his ear and he let out a low whistle.

"Hell, I wanna see." He declared walking around to Davey patting him on the back before rolling the neck of his shirt. At this point, Clara had her head in her hands and Davey wasn't even fighting it because it was inevitable.

"Christ, Clara!" Jack laughed in amusement, he helped Crutchie over to show him and the crippled boy's eyes widened. "That looks like it hurt."

Davey raised his eyebrows and shrugged nonchalantly because, quite frankly, he hadn't noticed. He looked over and saw Katherine patting Clara's hand as she tried to hold back a smile, "Honestly, something like this was gonna happen sooner or later."

"Would you like a ticket to the show?" He asked Katherine flatly as Jack and Crutchie kept finding new hickeys.

"Not really. I've always known she gets sort of…violent when she's happy." She smirked at the last part. "She once squeezed my hand so hard I had trouble typing for a couple of hours."

Clara looked up at her, "I apologized for that." Her color returned to normal and now she just looked sort of sheepish.

"So is it all that bad under the shirt?" Jack asked waggling his eyebrows and mussing up Davey's hair. Davey swatted his hands away, but Clara squeaked out an embarrassed "yes". Katherine looked like she knew it, Crutchie looked horrified, Jack looked _ecstatic_, and poor Les looked bewildered.

"Hold on, so Davey got beat up because of Clara?" Les asked looking up at everyone in sweet, innocent, pre-adolescent confusion. Jack bit back a laugh and Clara and Crutchie smiled at him not knowing what to say. So, Davey opened his mouth about to shed some light on a subject that would be brought up again sooner or later, but before he could get a word in, Katherine cut in."Your brother was defending Clara's honor and virtue."

Les nodded like it made sense while the rest of the table descended into chaos.


End file.
